93545 - Communication Laboratory (Lm) (G.C)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the workshop, students acquire the fundamentals of some specific aspects of multimedia languages through a programme of guided exercises.

Course contents

The history of cinema begins with workers. The film La Sortie des Usines Lumière à Lyon (1895, 45'') by the brothers Louis and Auguste Lumière, shows the 100 or so workers of the photographic articles factory crossing the gates and dispersing on opposite sides of the camera.

But why does the history of cinema begin with the end of work? Perhaps because, as it has been suggested by the scholar John Roberts (2012), it is impossible to represent labour from the point of view of the workers but only from the point of view of capital. Does the revolutionary horizon coincide with the end of labour?

The workshop is aimed at students interested in reflecting on the entanglement of cinema and politics through an analysis of the technical aspects and operating dynamics related to the filmic representation of labour.

Readings/Bibliography

Mandatory texts:

Massimiliano Mollona, Working-class Cinema in the age of Digital Capitalism, Socialist Register, 2021

John Roberts, The Missing Factory, Mute, 2012.

Marco Scotini, Artecrazia, Roma, Derive Approdi, 2016. Parte Terza: Schermi.

Recommended bibliography

Evan Calder Williams, The Fog of Class War: Elio Petri’s The Working Class goes to Heaven. Four decades on. Film Quarterly. 66(4): 50-59.

Carlo Felice Casula, Il Lavoro ed I Lavori nel cinema tra Fiction e Documentari. Quaderno Fondazione Marco Biagi, 2015.

Demos, T., J., The Art of Darkness: On Steve McQueen. October Magazine, MIT Press, 2005.

Espinosa Julio García, La doppia morale del cinema, Firenze, Giunti Gruppo Editoriale, 2000.

Simonetta Fadda, Media e Arte. Franco Angeli. 2020.

Oliver Ressler, Alternative Economics, Alternative Realities, Wyspa Institute of Art, 2007

Online resources:

https://www.fondazionecsc.it/il-progetto-e-le-forme-di-un-cinema-politico-2-il-sessantotto/

https://www.aamod.it [https://www.aamod.it/]

Oliver Ressler

https://www.youtube.com/c/oliverresslerfilms

Antje Ehmann and Harun Farocki. Labour in a Single Shot.

https://www.labour-in-a-single-shot.net/en/project/concept/

Recommended films:

Louis e Auguste Lumiere. L’uscita dale Fabbriche Lumière. (La Sortie des Usines Lumière à Lyon), 1985.

Antonio Cavalcanti. Coal Face, 1935

Sergej Ejzenštejn. Sciopero (Stačka), 1924

Harun Farocki. L’uscita della Fabbrica (Arbeiter verlassen die Fabrik), 1995.

Massimiliano Mollona. Vite d’ Acciaio (Steel Lives), 1999

Elio Petri, La Classe Operaia va in Paradiso, 1971.

Oliver Ressler. 5 fabbriche. Controllo operaio in Venezuela (5 Fábricas. Control Obrero en Venezuela), 2004

Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin, Chronicle of a Summer, 1961.

Steve McQueen. Western Deep, 2002

Wang Bing, Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, 2002.

Cao Fei, Whose Utopia?, 2006

Teaching methods

A first section (4 hours) will provide an introduction to the production and distribution aspects of political cinema focusing on the representation of labour in different historical and cultural contexts.

The second section (6 hours) will focus on the analysis of some case studies with the aim of identifying contents and filmic techniques - subject, editing, narrative, sound - that characterise the different genres of labour representation such as documentary, participatory ethnography, archive, art cinema and melodrama.

The last section (20 hours) will be devoted to putting into practice the notions discussed and developed previously.

Calendar

Monday 21/3 - h. 9-12; Monday 28/3 - h 9-12; Tuesday 29/3 - h 9-12; Wednesday 30/3 - h 9-12; Tuesday 05/04 - h 9-12; Wednesday 06/04 - h 9-12.

Meetings divided into groups: Monday 21/03 - h. 13/17; Monday 28/03 - h. 13/17; Tuesday 05/04 - h. 13/17;

Assessment methods

The students - divided into three groups - will have to make a 15-minute short film focused on the subject of the work, alternating in the tasks of the audiovisual project - camera, editing and sound. Through group dynamics, the workshop becomes a space for reflection on the division of labour and power relations existing within the film industry, and on alternative production and distribution processes to this fragmentary logic.

Teaching tools

Multimedia laboratory

Office hours

See the website of Massimiliano Nicola Mollona